{"id":608896,"date":"2026-04-16T22:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/608896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T22:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:18:18","slug":"vancouver-canucks-may-already-have-the-pieces-to-take-a-big-jump-next-season-the-hockey-writers-vancouver-canucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/608896\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Canucks May Already Have the Pieces to Take a Big Jump Next Season – The Hockey Writers – Vancouver Canucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s funny how a season can drift into meaninglessness and still leave you with something to think about. The Vancouver Canucks<\/a> haven\u2019t had much to celebrate at home this year, and the numbers at Rogers Arena have been ugly enough that you don\u2019t really need to dress them up.<\/p>\n

Related: 5 Takeaways From Canucks\u2019 4-3 OT Victory Over the Kings<\/a><\/p>\n

But hockey\u2019s a strange game like that. Even in a season that\u2019s been largely frustrating, you still get nights where something feels like it\u2019s trying to come together. Or at least you get the feeling about what could come together if it were handled a little differently.<\/p>\n

This latest 4-3 overtime win against the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> on Tuesday night had that feeling. It was far from a perfect game. But it was one of those games where you start looking past the result and asking a different question entirely: What if the answers were here all along? Because there were a few players in this game who didn\u2019t just \u201ccontribute.\u201d They looked like they might actually matter going forward.<\/p>\n

Kirill Kudryavtsev: Calm Looks Like a Skill<\/p>\n

Kirill Kudryavtsev stood out in a way that doesn\u2019t always jump off the scoresheet. There\u2019s a calmness to his game that feels almost out of place on this roster at times. He\u2019s not rushing reads. He\u2019s not chasing plays. He\u2019s just in the right spot at the right time, doing the simple things properly. You almost forget he\u2019s a young player because the decision-making doesn\u2019t look rushed.<\/p>\n

Related: Can Canucks\u2019 Zeev Buium Replace Quinn Hughes?<\/a><\/p>\n

He saves a goal early, he makes a smart offensive-zone activation later, and suddenly you start wondering something a little uncomfortable: why does the most structurally sound defenceman feel like the least \u201ccoached\u201d one?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a shot at anyone specifically \u2014 it\u2019s more a question of fit. Sometimes players play a game that doesn\u2019t need to be overthought.<\/p>\n

Nils H\u00f6glander: The Chemistry Question That Keeps Coming Back<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Nils H\u00f6glander,<\/a> who is starting to become a player you can\u2019t quite pin down in the system. Every time he ends up near Elias Pettersson, something happens<\/a>. It doesn\u2019t happen every shift or every game, but it does happen enough that you notice it. There\u2019s pace, pressure, and a bit of chaos that actually works in their favour. And then, just as quickly, it\u2019s gone again.<\/p>\n

\"NilsNils Hoglander, Vancouver Canucks (Bob Frid-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s frustrating. It feels like this combination keeps flashing in front of the coaching staff, but never lasts long enough to matter. They get a good shift, a good period, maybe even a good game \u2014 and then it\u2019s shuffled away again like a temporary experiment.<\/p>\n

At some point, you start to wonder if the team is searching for something it\u2019s already stumbled into more than once.<\/p>\n

Aatu R\u00e4ty: Quiet Control in the Details<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Aatu R\u00e4ty<\/a>, who doesn\u2019t demand attention but earns it anyway. A 17-for-21 night in the faceoff circle speaks to control and possession. Those are the kinds of details that quietly tilt the ice. And on a team that\u2019s often struggled to control games in small but important ways, that matters more than it probably should.<\/p>\n

Related: NHL Rumors: Hage Trade, Rielly\u2019s Future, Red Wings Summer, Pettersson Questions<\/a><\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t play like someone trying to prove he belongs. He plays like someone who expects to be there. That\u2019s a distinction that matters.<\/p>\n

Zeev Buium: Chaos That Might Actually Be Useful<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Zeev Buium. He\u2019s probably the most polarizing player in this group. His movement seems to put him at risk. He has offensive instinct without much interest in slowing down first. Some of it looks brilliant. Some of it looks like it shouldn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\"SUBSCRIBE<\/a><\/p>\n

And yet, the result is a goal, some zone chaos, and a reminder that structure and creativity don\u2019t always coexist comfortably. The question with players like this is never whether they\u2019re noticeable. It\u2019s whether a team knows how to use them.<\/p>\n

So What\u2019s the Real Story With These Canucks?<\/p>\n

Strip everything else away, and this game wasn\u2019t really about beating the Kings. It was about something more subtle: the sense that the Canucks might already have pieces worth building around \u2014 they just don\u2019t seem entirely sure how to arrange them yet.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the uncomfortable part. Because when you zoom out, this isn\u2019t a roster begging for a total teardown. It\u2019s a roster that keeps producing small, interesting answers\u2026 and then moving on from them too quickly.<\/p>\n

The structure isn\u2019t fully there. The identity still shifts from night to night. But the raw material? It might be closer than it looks. And that\u2019s the question that lingers after the game. It isn\u2019t just what we saw \u2014 it\u2019s why we don\u2019t see more of it.<\/p>\n

Related: Canucks News & Rumours: Draft Pick Trades, Dysfunction & Lottery Choices<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s funny how a season can drift into meaninglessness and still leave you with something to think about.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[84613,49,48,229630,21642,55,97058],"class_list":{"0":"post-608896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver","8":"tag-aatu-raty","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-kirill-kudryavtsev","12":"tag-nils-hoglander","13":"tag-vancouver","14":"tag-zeev-buium"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}